15 Facts About Modi Alon

Mordechai "Modi" Alon was an Israeli fighter pilot who with the formation of the Israeli Air Force in May 1948, assumed command of its first fighter squadron.

Mordechai Modi Alon was born in Safed on 17 January 1921, to Yaacov and Naomi Kalibansky, pioneers of the Second Aliyah.

The family moved around several times before finally settling in Tel Aviv, where Modi Alon attended the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium while secretly enlisting in the Haganah.

In 1940 Modi Alon enlisted in the Royal Air Force, heeding calls by the Jewish Agency for Israel for the Jews in Palestine to support the British war effort.

Modi Alon began his training in Rhodesia on 24 November 1943, graduating on 22 December 1944.

Modi Alon enlisted with the Sherut Avir, the Haganah's nascent air service operating a collection of light aircraft, and in March 1948 was assigned command of its Tel Aviv Squadron.

Modi Alon was in the first batch of Sherut Avir pilots sent to fly the new aircraft, and departed Sde Dov on 6 May 1948.

Modi Alon was flying the Avia at the Czechoslovak airfield at Ceske Budejovice.

Modi Alon was given command of the squadron, although Lou Lenart, a World War II veteran of fighting in the Pacific, was to command it in the air.

Modi Alon's aircraft was damaged upon landing, but the sortie nevertheless bought Israeli forces enough time to halt the Egyptian advance.

Dozens of civilians had been killed in previous raids, and flying the IAF's sole combat aircraft, Modi Alon engaged the four Egyptian aircraft.

The air force held a press conference which Modi Alon attended, and its headquarters was flooded with gifts, flowers and alcohol for the pilot despite the wartime scarcity of such luxuries.

Modi Alon maneuvered behind one of the Spitfires to down Wing Commander Said Afifi al-Janzuri.

In late September 1948 Modi Alon participated in Operation Velvetta, ferrying Czechoslovak Spitfires to Israel.

Modi Alon was survived by his wife, Mina, three months pregnant at the time.